President Dmitry Medvedev says Russia's future will depend on its ability to sell off government-controlled companies and decentralize Moscow's political power.

Mr. Medvedev told a gathering of political and business leaders in St. Petersburg Friday that the country has to reform, regardless of who was chosen to head the nation in next year's presidential elections.

He said his personal choice for Russia is to speed up the sale of state companies, cut bureaucracy, and join the World Trade Organization.

Stability, he said, could hide the potential for stagnation.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the former president who is generally viewed as the stronger political figure of the two, has made stability a keystone of his government.